The beloved wine village of Los Olivos just got even more charming with a Story of Soil tasting room that served all reds but the first one was so light, bright, and chilled that it soothed our hankering for a rosé wine. Story of Soil’s Carbonic Grenache was made without time in oak. This stainless steel grenache had lots of sour cherry and bright raspberry with slight spices and a whiff of cinnamon. The tasting experience sent me reminiscing about carbonic maceration, a winemaking technique used to bring out the fruit profiles while softening their tannins. If you like pink but avoid tannic reds, this wine is a winner.

Then, they poured a taste of the same grenache that was cellared in oak barrels, allowing a slight chewy texture to shine with similar fruit notes of cherry but smoke and vanilla, rounding out the mouthfeel. It would have been fun to taste the same grenache wine with very different representations side by side to note the nuances of different flavors that emerged from time in an oak barrel. But we were impressed with all the wines they poured and hearing the story of their soil.

More wine notes from my time in this region.